Did Film Council Take This Decision Again?

The Sierra Leone Film Council installed Alfred Harun Thullah as their representative in the northern region during the process of the burial of late Elijah Musa Deen who passed away while he was still in office as the president of the Northern Movie Makers Alliance.

The Film Council took this decision without informing the filmmakers in the north nor the sitting vice president Conteh Mohamed S. alias special C. Did they even forget that NoMrMAL was formed by people and it’s governed under bye-laws and a constitution? 

According to the source of this medium, Alfred Harun Thullah was summoned on a two days meeting in Freetown days towards the vigil and burial ceremony of the late man. The meeting and the instalment took place without the knowledge of the vice to the late president.

Our source highlighted that the political turn took a different toll from the first meeting during the arrangement of the burial ceremony of the late man. It seems several notable filmmakers started showing up for the leadership, indirectly. 

We reached out to Michael I. Kargbo and asked these questions:

How did you come about to select Alfred Harun Thullah?  

Did you involve the sitting vice president?

Were the filmmakers of NorMMAL aware of your decision? 

To this day, we have not gotten any reply from the co-chair 1 of the Sierra Leone Film Council.  We interviewed other key filmmakers and to them, it was a surprise and the only came to know about it during a brief meeting where notable echelons of Film Council in the names of Yusuf Nanah Charm and Samuel Ibrahim Robinson – who in fact lead the meeting. Yusuf Nanah Charm led the process of announcing the selection of Alfred as the representative of Film Council in the north. 

When we reached out to Alfred, he said he was not selected as the president but the representative of the film council for the film policy.  According to the sitting vice president, Mohamed S. Conteh, the film council failed to confer on him the leadership respect as it should be. 

Interestingly, both men are very big filmmakers. Alfred Harun Thullah has been in the industry since the days of theatre while Mohamed S. Conteh is currently a BBC (the Eye)  documentary filmmaker. So, the question is, on which basis did the film council make the selection. 

Another question that comes to mind is, why didn’t the film council wait till late Elijah was laid to rest as it should be? Instead, they went ahead and made such a decision so fast amidst the burial process of the late man. 

Commentary After the Above Write up Went Viral

After we release the post, a lot of commentaries were made and some key members of the Sierra Leone Film Council, including Alfred Harun Thullah himself got back to us and said they did not hold any consultative meeting in Freetown as our sources claimed, and if so, they are look forward to see the prove but this medium cannot independently justify who, between the two parties gave us the correct information. Major members of the Sierra Leone Film Council executive went further to say our article did not capture the actual facts on ground.

However, they agreed that Alfred was indeed selected but did not confirm to have informed filmmakers in the north nor the sitting vice president prior to their decision.

Some independent filmmakers from across the country who were present also confirmed that to this medium that the pronouncement was made public in between the introduction of the sitting vice president of the Northern Movie Makers Alliance – Mohamed S. Conteh aka Special C, his speech and that of Alfred Harun Thullah’s speech. ”The man felt shame”, one anonymous filmmaker commented. Even Special C himself confirmed that he felt disrespected by the body (film council) he so much cherished but would love to keep low profile about the whole issue.

‘’Alfred wasn’t installed but asked to regulate film activities till the policy is been effected .‘’ Alhaji Musa Okeyan Conteh, one of the staunch members of film council, confirmed in his feedback to the us.

Key Comments from the Public

1. The decision was too soon. The late man was not even laid to rest.
2. NorMMAL has a sitting Vice President who was appointed by Elijah. Taking such a path means they disregarded the late man so much.

3 NorMMAL has a constitution.

4. People did not speak because it was burial period and never wanted an uproar

The question we want to ask are:

1. Is it right to say the decision of Film Council was wrong?
2. Or, the decision was good, even though NorMMAL still has a sitting vice president that was answerable to the late Elijah Musa Deen?
3. Is the decision constitutional to that of the sub-unit, NorMMAL?

May the soul of Elijah Musa Deen rest in perfect peace, and please leave a comment.